Alex Simmons/RST wrote:Have you not trained and raced more this past year than previously?

Without a really solid understanding of your actual workload (which is a function of volume AND intensity), it is impossible to say really.

For those familiar with the Performance Manager concept / Impulse-Response model of training, then it will show up what the differences in overall loads have been and the training patterns. It is an exceptionally revealing tool for post-hoc assessment of a season.

The above was probably a slightly heaver than normal month. August was less than half of that due to the blown rib and no racing. (At Southern cross cup, I gauged my fitness against Michael, M5 rider from Penrith, who I did a breakaway with at Sydney Road Titles and my guess there is that I haven't lost fitness)

Now there you are right, my work load has gone up, the road K's are about the same, but the spin classes have more than doubled. Though I no longer have a window to do track training.

fringe_dweller wrote:This is where having an experienced coach can really help. Not sure if Alex can recommend anyone.....

It requires a means to establish the daily training stress "load", which is a function of the daily training volume and intensity, and then to model that stress load's positive impact (improvement to current fitness) and negative impact (increase in fatigue). You then build up a picture of training over months and years.

One can then assess the balance between each, primarily to ensure the optimal dose of training is performed (enough to promote fitness improvements without over reaching too far).

It also enables one to investigate past training and identify what training patterns resulted in good and poor form. It's exceptionally good at that (provided you are supplying reliable inputs).

Well I don't have that data, but I may be able to take a guess, if I looked at a model to compare with.

I came into this sport with a strong upper body, strong hamstrings and weak quads. Over time I've built the quads but I feel there is a way to go with them. I've recognised my weaknesses and taken simple actions to rectify them.

What I feel I need now, is a good understanding of what actions address what and why. Then I make small adaptions to focus accordingly

Its largely gone over my head, I'll have to read it a few times, but some quick points from it;

Chronic training load, or CTL, provides a measure of how much an athlete has been training - historicallyAcute training load, or ATL, provides a measure of how much an athlete has been training - recentlyTraining stress balance, or TSB, is, as the name suggests, the difference between CTL and ATL, i.e., TSB = CTL â€“ ATL

So need to quantify the above against my history/current

And there's a simple definition based on what event you are targeting;

Yes, although it probably needs to be seeded with starting ATL & CTL values and plot a few other things like daily TSS and perhaps some mean maximal power numbers for durations of specific interest. Predicated on:- all cycle training being accounted for and using accurate power meter data- correct threshold power setting being used through the season

but in essence you can see overall training patterns.

In this case some consistent training Nov 2010 to early Feb 2011 (subject to proper seeding of the chart), then it looks like a week or so of no or almost no training (travel, sick?).

Then a couple of weeks of training to get back into it, probably before a race block through second half of March to early/mid April.

Then training was in fits 'n' starts for a few months, possibly on/off racing and a rider who was either doing big events and having to recover, or trying to train lots in short blocks to prep for a race and recovering as a result.

A sharp spike in the CTL line at end-April which suggest a big weekend or riding/racing. Couldn't sustain the effort after a week of trying.

Through the period mid-April to end-July, training seems to meander (weeks of going hard, weeks backing off), which sort of happens when you are trying to have a longish racing period (of course I don't know who this is or what they were actually doing) or if your training time is interrupted with rest of life issues and you are trying to make up for lost time.

The more recent training indicates a sharp rise in CTL over ~ 4-5 weeks. That is either unsustainable (without some excellent recovery help, like being on holiday, lots of sleep etc), meaning the rider is increasing their susceptibility to illness or over reaching, or perhaps the rider's threshold power is underestimated.

Very interesting read Alex. So if you are getting a lot of sleep and you recover well (stretching etc) you can offset some of the negatives associated with a heavy increase in training? What sort of IF scores would be indicative of an under predicted threshold power also in the early weeks would this maybe improve more quickly then what you would test it if so would you ever up your threshold power without retesting it?

vander wrote:So if you are getting a lot of sleep and you recover well (stretching etc) you can offset some of the negatives associated with a heavy increase in training?

one at a time! lol

Clearly someone that has the ability to eat, sleep and recover after hard training has an advantage over someone that has to, say, go to work. The training load one can sustain is most definitely linked not only to the amount of sleep, but the quality of that sleep. I have one athlete using a sleep monitoring system and we have collected a year's worth of data. The relationship is pretty clear for him.

vander wrote:What sort of IF scores would be indicative of an under predicted threshold power?

If you are attaining 1-hour IF scores of >1.05 from a hard race or race like effort, then it's an indication of an underestimated threshold power.

vander wrote:also in the early weeks would this maybe improve more quickly then what you would test it?

Typically training gains are faster in the early stages of training, especially when starting out relatively unfit (in particular if you have been well trained previously and/or respond to training well. Response rates to training are individual and has a fair genetic component). The need to update threshold power for the purposes of performance management charts is likely to be required more frequently earlier in a training cycle.

vander wrote:if so would you ever up your threshold power without retesting it?

IOW with enough experience, you can make sound estimates of threshold power changes based on regular training and racing. However for most, a sound, repeatable and consistent testing protocol is advised but one must remember it is still only one data point (e.g. you might just have a bad day). With a power meter, you are monitoring your power every day.

I would absolutely love to. But being a poor uni student living out of home im scraping for dollars anyway so unless a whole bunch of cash jumps in my wallet before then I wont be able to . Any money in winning races

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